#mortgage-delinquencies

#mortgage-delinquencies

ICE found that overall mortgage performance was strong in October, with the national delinquency rate falling by 7 basis points (bps) to 3.34%. That's down 11 bps from the same time last year and 53 bps below the October 2019 pre-pandemic benchmark. Andy Walden, ICE's head of mortgage and housing market research, said modest rate relief this fall sparked a jump in mortgage applications and added to the strong performance.

Applying for a home loan is a pain. You have to produce a heap of documents - bank statements, tax returns, employment records, tallies of investment accounts - to prove the stability of your financial footing, then wait for a mortgage underwriter to comb through all of it before giving you the thumbs up. I spoke with one exasperated homebuyer who described the process as a "borderline invasion of privacy."

Rising property taxes, insurance, and maintenance costs are outpacing income growth for most Americans, leading to an increase in serious delinquencies in mortgage payments.